UMassHoops.com

Unless they want Ponds to play the point... then it doesn't help us at all... I have a feeling Brown is leaning our way. Him and Donte would be great in the 3-guard line-up

Glad to see the site back up! Now all eyes turn to Brown. The final piece in what would be a truly special, and remarkable, 2016 recruiting class. His addition would make this class a legit Top 10 class in the country (or at the very least in that conversation) and really set this program up for long-term success. A program changing recruiting performance by DK and staff. It's been an amazing past few days. Let's go Bruce, join the party!

Brown hasn't taken any officials yet AFAIK, however he does have one upcoming to Georgetown.

Given how close to the vest he's played his recruitment, I expect him to take all his officials prior to committing anywhere.

I look at Indiana picking up guards and St. John's picking up Ponds as positives for UMass. Keep taking scholarships.

UMass has the perfect spot open for Brown and one more scholarship slot to give him. They've been recruiting him hard for a long. long time too, just like they did with Jarreau/Gresham/Baldwin.

It's not easy to handicap something like this, but with all that's taken place so far, I think it's OK to call UMass a slight favorite as of right now to land Brown.

My mind is spinning. As of today we already have an incredible recruiting class of 2 bigs and 2 guards. I'm giddy and I'm greedy. I want it all, and the "all" is Bruce Brown. Bruce, join the brotherhood and put us over the top.

Jarreau and Gresham's coach back home retweeting people trying to get BB to join the party. Get this guy a musket! All hands on deck! Everyone realizes how special this recruiting class is so far and adding BB to the mix takes it from special to spectacular.

we currently have the 18th best recruiting class for 2016....assuming we land BB, where do you think we jump to?

TheInsider wrote:Unless they want Ponds to play the point... then it doesn't help us at all... I have a feeling Brown is leaning our way. Him and Donte would be great in the 3-guard line-up

Not sure what you're saying here, Ponds is an SG, as is Brown... Don't see how that couldn't be a good thing for UMass

thecaptain wrote:we currently have the 18th best recruiting class for 2016....assuming we land BB, where do you think we jump to?

My guess would be 9-12 range

I saw that he might play point... that means SG would still be open for brown

thecaptain wrote:we currently have the 18th best recruiting class for 2016....assuming we land BB, where do you think we jump to?

17th best. Baldwin bumped us up one.

If Bruce Brown commits to UMass.......... OHHHHH LAWDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYY

thecaptain wrote:we currently have the 18th best recruiting class for 2016....assuming we land BB, where do you think we jump to?

7th in the nation as of right now. Of course as other teams get new recruits it would fluctuate.

Bruce Brown's recruitment has been very interesting to follow. He's not very active on social media. I'm not sure if he purposely plants false info, or if his recruitment has just changed a lot. Back in the spring and early summer Brown seemed like a hot commodity, he was being pursued by Texas, Indiana, Georgetown, St. John's, Michigan, Arizona and even UNC with pretty much no mention of UMass even though I know they were recruiting him heavily. Lately, it seems like most of the big names have dropped out with only Indiana, Gtown, SMU, Miami, BC and UMass pursuing him now as far as I've heard (maybe even fewer, hard to say). From what it sounded like, most teams were looking at him as a point guard. Maybe they lost interest when they decided he isn't yet a good fit at PG and doesn't have the shooting ability to play SG, I don't know, just guessing.

To my knowledge the only schools he's visited are UMass, St. John's and maybe BC, all unofficially. He was scheduled to visit Indiana and Gtown in September, but for unknown reasons that never happened and I have no idea if it will or not. To my knowledge he's been on UMass' campus a minimum of 3 times over the last 18 months, probably more.

It's entirely possible that Brown waits until the Spring signing period to decide. Or maybe he'll commit in a few minutes, I really have no idea right now. But based on how much time UMass has spent recruiting him, how he spoke recently to a reporter who asked him who was heavily recruiting him and combined with some of little clues on Twitter, I think UMass is in a really good spot and I'd peg them as the leader.

I kind of hope he just springs an announcement on us at a random time....if he schedules something a few days out, BT is going to get really weird on Twitter.

I agree that the few available tea leaves make me feel like we're right in the middle of this, if not a slight favorite. But as you say, not based on much.

^ Based on how he's handled his recruitment up until now, I think the most likely scenario is for him to just announce out of the blue without any top XXX lists or press conferences or any of the other hoopla.